MLA’S son, 6 others die in car crash
BENGALURU: Seven people, including the son of a Tamil Nadu lawmaker, were killed in the early hours of Tuesday after their “speeding” vehicle slammed into roadside structures at the Koramangala area, police said.
Six people died on the spot and the seventh died on the way to hospital, officials said, identifying one of the victims as the son of Hosur MLA Y Prakash. All of the victims were between the ages of 20 and 30 and an investigation has been opened to determine if it was a case of drinkdriving.
According to joint commissioner of police (traffic) B Ravikanthe Gowda, the incident took place at around 1.45am. “The Audi with seven occupants was completely mangled in the accident. None of the passengers was wearing seat belts, so the airbags did not open,” Gowda said. The group consisted of four men and three women.
An officer from Adugodi traffic police station said the group was on their way from Sony signal junction towards Forum Mall when their vehicle crashed.
“CCTV footage from a nearby building showed the car passing through in a fraction of a second. Looking at the footage, we suspect the car was going over 150km per hour,” the officer said, asking not to be named.
A resident in the area, Vishwanath, said he rushed out after he heard a loud noise. “When I came out, there were some autorickshaw drivers who were standing around the spot. There was a lot of smoke coming from the vehicle and even though we wanted to check on them, someone said the car could explode, so we were uncertain. We soon decided to pour water on the car and pull the bodies out,” he said.
Adugodi traffic police have filed a case under section 279 (rash driving on a public way) and section 304 (causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code. “As per preliminary investigation, this is a case of over-speeding and negligent driving. We will know if the driver was under the influence of alcohol after the post-mortem analysis,” Gowda said.
The deceased were identified as Karuna Sagar, Prakash’s son, Karuna’s fiance Bindu, Ishita, Dhanush, Akshay Goyal, Utsav and Rohit.
Tamil Nadu chief minister and DMK president MK Stalin condoled the death of his party legislator’s son in the accident.
The MLA was in Chennai when he learnt about the accident and left for Hosur, news agency PTI reported. His elder brother Chandrappa arrived at St John’s Hospital here to receive the body after the autopsy.